Together Again
George and Gracie are back together once more to enjoy their annual week of playtime. My house is sheer chaos. I've decided there should be a new Olympic sport - Synchronized dog tricks. These two are really good at it.
In other news, the grocery store has been invaded by buckskin clad mountain men. Aren't they supposed to hunt and kill their own food?
I Have a New Plan
I've decided I'm burned out. I haven't had a true vacation in three years. I need to do something. I'm thinking I should quit my job and become a bum. Gracie won't particularly like it, but she'll adjust.
Actually, I think I'm going to set a target goal of $15,000. When my online account reaches that number, I'm going to find a new job, quit my current one and go travel for a month before starting the new one. Conveniently, my account is damn close to that goal. I think May is pretty much when I'm thinking - good time to list the house, get my full vacation pay out, my annual bonus will have hit. Yep, six months and I have something to look forward to.
Colorado and More
This weekend I headed off to Steamboat Springs and Craig Colorado for work. Maybe I'm just getting jaded living in the mountains as I do, but Steamboat didn't really impress me that much. Then again, I left here at 6:30 got there at 11:30 worked all day and then fell asleep about ten minutes after checking into the hotel. Or perhaps the least impressive part was that it was freaking snowing. In fact, Loveland Pass was closed due to snow. It's August people.
This morning I got up and decided I did not want to take the freeway back home, but instead should take the scenic route. So I drove up through Brown's Park and made a quick stop at the Gates of Ladore.
It's unfortunate that the camera doesn't really capture the awesome size of this formation. After visiting the Gates, I continued on happily until I reached Utah. Colorado has a beautifully paved road. Utah has 50 miles of this...
I should mention these are some steep and narrow switchbacks in a "blasting zone". It made me feel so great to be in the middle of nowhere (I didn't see another car for an hour) and have to worry about falling rocks. I was also in a bit of a hurry because I wanted to do laundry and needed to get home in time to be able to hang my clothes on the line. I may have taken these roads at a bit faster pace than advisable. But I made it home. And I'm staying here.
Panda Porn
I've been watching the Olympics this week and have been greatly disturbed. Not only did I discover that the "live" broadcasts we're seeing are of events that occurred over an hour before (thanks for making me stay up past midnight to see who wins, NBC) but they kill the first hour with a man woman named "Mary" who has really random feel good China stories.
Yesterday's story was about pandas. It started out okay but quickly degenerated when they showed the video zookeepers show to pandas to put them in the mood. Oh yes, they sunk to showing panda porn. Really? Is there nothing better to broadcast than this? How about the sports you never show during primetime? Like badminton or kayaking. I watched kayak at lunch the other day and it was certainly more interesting than frolicking pandas.
There's not enough tequila in the world
Saturday night, I went out with some people to check out the Laramie night life. I started off with two margaritas. Clearly that was not enough. Wow. I did have a fun time with the gay guy who was with us. He was really into a "straight" cowboy friend of his. This cowboy was very obviously not hitting for the straight team, but trying very hard to appear that way. J was very cute about it though and was making progress for the future. After I was practically mauled (twice!) by a drunk woman trying to put her shoes on, I pretty much checked out on the evening.
Viva Qdoba
I'm having lunch at Qdoba tomorrow and dessert at DQ. And it's all just a short five hour drive away. E is excited.
The Grass is Always Greener
I was looking at all of my neighbors lawns today and noticed that they have beautiful lush green grass. My lawn is semi-green. I water it often. Why can't my grass be green too?
Also, while mowing the lawn at lunch today, I hit a big, big rock. That was the end of my mowing.
Evil, Evil Birds
This morning I woke up to a bird trying to get in my window. He just kept hovering and bumping into it. Later while watching the Twins, the birds had surrounded the house and began attacking several windows. I looked out my patio door and there staring smugly back at me were four birds sitting on the railing. They are most definitely plotting something evil.
In other news, I debated calling translations yesterday to mess with the dumbass who stole my phone. They could have set it so that any number dialled actually terminates to a number of my specification. Instead, I just had the SIM shut off. And now I have my phone back. I guess when it doesn't work, it's no longer of any use. "Sean" was nice enough to run it over to my company's booth. Just to verify that it wasn't lost, I looked up the CDRs on my account. It was most definitely getting a workout of the calling variety while it was out of my possession.
In still other news, I took Kristie and her mother out to dinner in Park City last night. Kristie's mother is vastly amusing as she was in the back of my truck taking pictures of anything and everything. This included power lines, traffic jams, construction vehicles as well as the usual mountains.
Phone Thieves
So I went to the fair tonight. I was there about three minutes and my phone was stolen. Normally I wouldn't care because I have lots of phones but this was my $300 Smartphone. Oops. I knew it was gone within ten seconds of someone lifting it. If I'd only had my other phone with me I could have called it and followed the ring. Bastards. I knew I should have stayed away from the freak show.
ETA: The phone was off when I tried calling it this morning. Now it's on and busy. The bastard is using my phone. But guess where I work? I will know every number they've dialed. Oh yes, I will find them.
